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CHAPTER II

PROPERTY

§1

THE definition of Wealth in the previous chapter restricts
its meaning to concrete material objects. But economics
has also to deal with abstract services, utilities, and property
rights. These, like material wealth, are bought and sold,
and are, in fact, often regarded as a sort of “immaterial”
or “‘incorporeal’’ wealth. It is, however, needless as well as
confusing to include these elements under the general category
 of wealth. They are not wealth, though they are
intimately related to wealth. The definition given shows
that wealth has two attributes: it must be material, and
it must be owned. Its materiality was the subject of the
previous chapter; its ownership will be the subject of the
present chapter.
But what is meant by owning wealth? We answer:
to have the right to use it. Such a right is called preperty,
 or, more explicitly, a property right. To own a loaf of
bread, or to have property or proprietorship in it, means
nothing more nor less than to have the right to eat it, or sell
it, or otherwise employ it to satisfy one’s desires. To own
a suit of clothes is to have the exclusive right to wear it.
To own a carriage is to have the right to drive in it or
otherwise utilize it as long as it lasts. To own a plot
of land means to have the right to its use forever. The concept
 of property — the “right to use wealth’’ — is more
fully expressed by the phrase, the “right to the uses of
wealth.” In this phrase we have to deal with two new
ideas — rights and uses — each of which needs to be treated
separately. :

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